For many years, I was a near-daily visitor to SeaWorld Orlando to watch the orcas in the underwater viewing area. Those visits stopped when SeaWorld removed Unna from her mother, Katina, and shipped this youngster to SeaWorld’s Texas location. Many of the nighttime crew told me Katina wailed all that night and through the next day.

Watching the riveting new documentary “Blackfish” brought back so many painful memories of the anguish Unna and Katina felt from being ripped apart, and my own broken heart. Even before Katina’s betrayal, I somehow knew that these beautiful animals were not meant to be in a small tank, used like circus props.

Unna recognized me. Her keen intelligence and self-awareness was apparent. As one of the people in “Blackfish” expressed so well, “When you look into their eyes, you just know someone is home.”

My husband and I never bought another annual pass after they transferred Unna, and we will not ever set foot in SeaWorld again. If you care about animals, please, never buy a ticket to any marine theme park.

Debra Pastore

Orlando

Noise Across the River Is Intrusive

I don’t want to abuse my privilege of writing to Folio Weekly, but I feel I must chime in on the proposed noise ordinance as outlined in “Decibel Dispute” [Nov. 13] by Ron Word.

I recently moved into the St. Nicholas neighborhood on the river side of Atlantic Boulevard and wondered even before I moved how loud the events at Metropolitan Park and EverBank Stadium would be. It hasn’t taken me long to find out.

Jaguars games and the Florida-Georgia game are no problem. You could clearly hear the roar of the Florida-Georgia crowd, but it wasn’t intrusive. However, the Greater Jacksonville Fair has certainly given me a taste of what’s in store. The thump, thump of the bass from even their small stage is intrusive and annoying. Loud enough that I have to turn up the TV to hear over it, and my home is over a mile away. Thankfully, these shows only last for a few hours in the evening. I can’t wait for an all-day headbangers fest.

What the promoters are saying about the noise level hurting their business is poppycock. Even in my younger years when I was a regular at rock concerts, I use to complain about the noise levels, and I’m half-deaf. At many concerts, the people around me stuffed cotton in their ears. The sound levels coming off those stages has nothing to do with anything except musicians and crew hopped up on whatever it is they are taking and an inebriated crowd. I know. I’ve been there.

I have no problem with, nor is it any of my business, what the performers or their fans do at their concerts so long as it doesn’t disturb me a mile away. Bottom line: Your right to swing your arms ends at the tip of my nose. Or, in this case … ears.

Carlton Higginbotham

Jacksonville

Forrest Letter Missed the Point

The letter-writer [“Do the Research on Forrest,” Nov. 13] missed the point. Rather than researching old history about Confederate general and KKK officer Forrest, people should research why the name was chosen in 1959. A School Board opposed to court-ordered desegregation took the name of the most controversial Confederate general to defy the U.S. Supreme Court. Forrest was not the name picked by the local community at that time.

It must be an embarrassment for our school superintendent to visit other parts of the country and be asked why we have a high school named after a former KKK member.